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•OTHNIEL lion of God, the first of the judges. His wife Achsah was the daughter of Caleb (Joshua 15:16, 17; Judges 1:13). He gained her hand as a reward for his bravery in leading a successful expedition against Debir (q.v.). Some thirty years after the death of Joshua, the Israelites fell under the subjection of Chushan-rishathaim (q.v.), the king of Mesopotamia. He oppressed them for full eight years, when they “cried” unto Jehovah, and Othniel was raised up to be their deliverer. He was the younger brother of Caleb (Judges 3:8, 9-11). He is the only judge mentioned connected with the tribe of Judah. Under him the land had rest forty years.
•OUCHES an Old English word denoting cavities or sockets in which gems were set (Exodus 28:11).
•OVEN Hebrews tannur, (Hos. 7:4). In towns there appear to have been public ovens. There was a street in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 37:21) called “bakers’ street” (the only case in which the name of a street in Jerusalem is preserved). The words “tower of the furnaces” (Nehemiah 3:11; 12:38) is more properly “tower of the ovens” (Hebrews tannurim). These resemble the ovens in use among ourselves.
There were other private ovens of different kinds. Some were like large jars made of earthenware or copper, which were heated inside with wood (1 Kings 17:12; Isaiah 44:15; Jeremiah 7:18) or grass (Matthew 6:30), and when the fire had burned out, small pieces of dough were placed inside or spread in thin layers on the outside, and were thus baked. (See FURNACE.)
Pits were also formed for the same purposes, and lined with cement. These were used after the same manner.
Heated stones, or sand heated by a fire heaped over it, and also flat irons pans, all served as ovens for the preparation of bread. (See Genesis 18:6; 1 Kings 19:6.)
•OWL (1.) Hebrews bath-haya’anah, “daughter of greediness” or of “shouting.” In the list of unclean birds (Leviticus 11:16; Deuteronomy 14:15); also mentioned in Job 30:29; Isaiah 13:21; 34:13; 43:20; Jeremiah
50:39; Micah 1:8. In all these passages the Revised Version translates “ostrich” (q.v.), which is the correct rendering.
(2.) Hebrews yanshuph, rendered “great owl” in Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:16, and “owl” in Isaiah 34:11. This is supposed to be the Egyptian eagle-owl (Bubo ascalaphus), which takes the place of the eagle-owl (Bubo maximus) found in Southern Europe. It is found frequenting the ruins of Egypt and also of the Holy Land. “Its cry is a loud, prolonged, and very powerful hoot. I know nothing which more vividly brought to my mind the sense of desolation and loneliness than the re-echoing hoot of two or three of these great owls as I stood at midnight among the ruined temples of Baalbek” (Tristram).
The LXX. and Vulgate render this word by “ibis”, i.e., the Egyptian heron.
(3.) Hebrews kos, rendered “little owl” in Leviticus 11:17; Deuteronomy 14:16, and “owl” in Psalm 102:6. The Arabs call this bird “the mother of ruins.” It is by far the most common of all the owls of Palestine. It is the Athene persica, the bird of Minerva, the symbol of ancient Athens.
(4.) Hebrews kippoz, the “great owl” (Isaiah 34:15); Revised Version, “arrow-snake;” LXX. and Vulgate, “hedgehog,” reading in the text, kippod, instead of kippoz. There is no reason to doubt the correctness of the rendering of the Authorized Version. Tristram says: “The word [i.e., kippoz] is very possibly an imitation of the cry of the scops owl (Scops giu), which is very common among ruins, caves, and old walls of towns...It is a migrant, returning to Palestine in spring.”
(5.) Hebrews lilith, “screech owl” (Isaiah 34:14, marg. and R.V., “night monster”). The Hebrew word is from a root signifying “night.” Some species of the owl is obviously intended by this word. It may be the hooting or tawny owl (Syrnium aluco), which is common in Egypt and in many parts of Palestine. This verse in Isaiah is “descriptive of utter and perpetual desolation, of a land that should be full of ruins, and inhabited by the animals that usually make such ruins their abode.”